Farmers markets to go: How to get your favorite goodies delivered amid COVID-19

Nut butters, jellies, jams, and juices. Cheese, crackers, croissants, and coffee. Bread and butter pickles, olive oils, kombucha, and artisan soap. Cuban coffee toffee fudge. Sigh.

Oh, how we love our farmers markets, and how we miss them in this time of the coronavirus pandemic.

But, as the new Farmers Markets To Go website says, “You can still get all your favorites.”

The brainchild of Laurie Landgrebe and Victor Vigano, who most market shoppers know from their granola booth Laurie’s Pantry, Farmers Markets To Go started up with online ordering and deliveries in mid-April.

“The outbreak of COVID-19 has badly hurt our farmers and artisans. This site supports these vendors while catering to the many of you who have been requesting this service,” Landgrebe said.

“As loyal customers already know, these local vendors bring superior quality, freshness, and a unique homestyle touch to their products. The website brings together a great selection of South Florida artisan and farmer vendors from local area Farmers Markets under one easy site to access online point of sale,” she said.

Almost every day a new vendor joins. Together they represent the Coral Gables Farmers Market, Pinecrest Farmers Market, Parkland Farmers Market, West Palm Beach GreenMarket, Delray Green Market, and The Gardens GreenMarket.

Swank Farms Specialty Produce also offers a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box for $38 with six seasonal items — three greens and three vegetables — that allows you to “share in the rewards of local farming, without having to get your fingers dirty, or make the investment in time to have fresh food on your table.”

“Farmers Markets To Go is a new delivery service of the best vendors from farmers markets offering their products to the community during this global pandemic,” Jodi Swank said. “It’s a great service. You don’t have to leave your home. There’s door to door service and I can’t wait to shop on it myself.”

Michelle Touchstone of Me and a Tree Skincare said the new website is a great way to support local while getting unique artisan products.

“We at ‘Me and a Tree Skincare’ put so much time and craftsmanship into our handmade original creations of soaps, creams, candles, and lotions. We look forward to staying connected and supporting our local community through this labor of love. Thank you to all who are continuing to support local business. You make a difference,” Touchstone said.

Here’s how it works. You can sign in and shop weekly for your fresh produce, local eggs, fresh breads, and small-batch artisan pantry staples. Orders must be placed and purchased by Thursday at midnight for Saturday deliveries. The minimum total order for delivery needs to be at least $50 and there is a $15 delivery fee. There is no charge for pickup.

Pickup is available for items ordered Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 470 Ansin Blvd. Unit D/E, Hallandale Beach.

The pickup location is aimed at being central for all as Farmers Markets To Go arranges delivery to most of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Your goodies are assembled the morning of your delivery and ice packs are added for perishables to ensure freshness, especially if you’re not home to receive it. Your order will arrive Saturdays between 12 p.m. and 10 p.m. Customers will receive update texts on delivery day.

Another vendor is Biofarm Grassland Provisions, where owners Alessandra and Enoque Dias are offering chicken and duck eggs from their local farm that provides free-range, pasture-raised poultry and eggs.

Adam Brown of AB’s Gourmet Kitchen said he was happy to join the site so he can reach out to his customers from the markets “that I no longer get to see and miss dearly.”

“I want to help them have fun with all of the cooking that they are doing while staying home, by using my wonderful salts, sugars and BBQ rubs,” he said.

Almudena Gudiel, chef and owner of Gables Delight, offers artisan jams and marmalades with flavors including fig, blueberry lavender, spicy guava habanero, pineapple coconut and strawberry jasmine. There’s even a tri-berry Grand Marnier jam.

“We sourced our fruit locally,” Gudiel said of the jam blends. “We join Farmers Markets To Go to support each of local vendors with high-end quality products.”

Walid Eid, owner of Pascale’s Jam, became meditative when asked about the mission of Farmers Markets To Go.

“As the Nobel Prize-winning philosopher Albert Camus once said, ‘In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.’ The initiative of the website is a representation of this. Regardless what is happening around us, there is a part of our Green Market community that is strong and determined to provide the best to all our loyal customers.

“The Pascale’s team will continue to discover ways to innovate and create support for our customers,” Eid said. “We are proud to be part of this initiative and together with our community we will rise to the challenge.”

Pascale’s is keeping with the theme and also offering products made with alcohol. There’s orange Irish whiskey marmalade and pineapple vanilla rum jam.

Fresh orange juice and juice blends can be ordered and delivered fresh through 305Squeezed, and you can buy full bags of oranges and grapefruits through All American Citrus to juice the fruits yourself.

The chefs at the Café Crème offer bistro meals like goat cheese and mushroom quiche, mushroom risotto, roast salmon, “Shrimps a la Provencale,” lasagna, braised pork, and “Boeuf Bourguignon.”

And the chefs at Health in Spice healthy Indian-inspired cuisine offer vegetarian and vegan meals like mung dal curry and chana palak masala as well as tandoori chicken egg fried rice, and tandoori shredded salmon with red quinoa.

“Cancelling Green Markets at the peak of season was devastating for us and our customers,” Landgrebe said.

“FarmersMarketsToGo.com is trying to give meaning for a lifetime of work by these vendors in a time of crisis when most are really suffering. The impact to these small business is disproportionate as they do not have the resources of large companies to survive,” she said.

Regular shopper Marla Marks of Coral Gables likes the idea of finding all the vendors in one spot for online ordering.

“While I miss the community the Pinecrest Farmers Market brings each Sunday, I am excited to support some of my favorite vendors through their online market,” Marks said.

“The best part about farmers markets is that you are supporting locally sourced products.”

How to order

Visit https://www.farmersmarketstogo.com/ to place orders for delivery or pickup. More vendors are being added so if your favorite isn’t there be sure to check back.

This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Farmers markets to go: How to get your favorite goodies delivered amid COVID-19."